Note Spelling Bee

Music Alphabet Words is a set of 42 flash cards that contain words made from letters in the music alphabet. They are for groups or at a private lesson. A simple way is for students to have a paper staff, the teacher holds up a card, and the student uses bingo chips to put on the a line or space of for each word.

There are 8 pages of words in this printable PDF, ranging from 3 to 6 letter words. When I made these cards, I carefully designed them for the smallest amount of cutting necessary.

Cecilly, who has shared a lot of her games with me, sent me an activity that can use these cards, or you can make your own. The following was written by Cecilly.

Spelling/Interval Bee

Materials: A Grand staff board with up to 7 plastic transparent discs (bingo
chips) and file cards with as many spelling words that you can think of written
on the cards (BAG, CAGE, DEAF, FEED, ACE, EDGE, etc.).

Set Up: I have laminated my staff board and placed a little blob of poster putty
on the back of each bingo chip so they can be positioned on the staff and not
slide off, but this isn’t necessary to do the activity. Using a table or the floor, sit across from the student. The staff board and
chips are for the student and the spelling word cards are for the teacher.

To Play: Shuffle the spelling cards and place face down on the table. Draw the
first card and call out the word, showing the word to the student. He in turn is
to spell the word using the bingo chips and placing them on whatever line or
space corresponds to the letters in the word. However, use only one clef at a
time. The chips should be placed in order of each letter in the word and in a “melodic” fashion on the staff. Repeated letters should be represented by different note locations. Allow a few moments for the student to spell the word. Once spelled accurately on the staff, ask the student to dictate the interval path of the melody created by the chips to you out loud (F down a 2nd E, up an 8va E, down a 2nd D: FEED). Then have him play the interval path on the piano if desired. Remove the chips and cont. with another word to spell. Make sure to play on each clef. Play as long as you wish.

Objective: There are really 3 objectives to this activity: 1) Identifying basic notes on the staff, 2) Melodic interval recognition and tracking, and 3) Playing the notes where they live intervallically on the piano.

5 thoughts to “Note Spelling Bee”

I use spelling bees quite often in my group piano lessons. To add an extra challenge, I’ll ask them to use no duplicates (very tough for the word “baggage”, or only line-notes, or only outer notes of the staff (below BC 2nd space C & above TC 3rd space C), or even just ledger lines. For a particularly strong note-reader, I’ll give that child a tougher challenge than the rest of his/her classmates.

Hi,I am sure you do not get thanked often enough for all the work you and Cicely do. It just seems to be that way. But, I do want to thank you as it encourages us and gives us a fresh boost to our teaching to receive these teaching aids along the way. Thank you so much and have a nice day.